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Peace's Archipelago
History The Archipelago of Captain Peace, Peace's Islands, or "The Pieces," where discovered by Captain Peace the Intrepid an explorer of great renown. Peace hailed from Volos, the capital of Carth. She came from a rich upbringing but had a fiery spirit and great sense of adventure. So she went exploring. Peace's Islands are but one of her discoveries. Geology Peace's Islands are actively being produced by plate tectonics. Oceanic crust colliding into nearby continental crust has created a chain of volcanic islands. Notably, the drifting plate is relatively small and so are the resultant island chains when considered in terms of area on the map. However, there are hundreds perhaps thousands of islands to explore. Most of these are small and insignificant but many are quite large. In essence, Peace's Islands are a huge, natural maze. It's an excellent hiding place and this does attract some unsavory characters, but only the toughest. The local fauna that has kept the explorers and developers out keeps all but the hardest and bravest pirates out. Further out, the islands give way to a mysterious series of coral atolls. Climate This part of Tyr is tropical; the island are covered in dense rainforest. Clashing currents from neighboring oceans produce warm, rich waters. Flora and Fauna The natural isolation of the islands has created a beautiful and unique ecosystem. Much of it is nasty. Of the land based creatures much of it is small are lacks means of locomotion. Poisonous and carnivorous plants, venomous snakes and swarms of vicious ants and wasps are common. Many of these can be deadly. The diverse plant life also houses rare healing and toxic herbs that would be of much interest to someone with right knowledge of how to use them. The largest land based predators are the formidable wyrms. These are closely related to drakes although they lack the means to fly. For the most part, they occupy Peace Rock, the largest of the islands. Although they have been known to do so, they rarely migrate to other islands because of water predators. There is a large school of drakes that occupy the area. They typically feed from the rich waters as this is the most abundant food supply, but they will happily eat most land-based creatures too. The drakes hunt throughout the area and always as a school. This learned behavior allows them to work as a unit to corral and feel upon large prey in the water. Although they occupy a large area, they only roost at Needles Pass. This is narrow channel with sheer cliffs on either side. The cliffs provide security for their nests from predators that roam out of the water that would eat a drakeling. Intelligent Races Peace's Islands are mostly uninhabited by civilized races, although there are pockets of hostile races here and there, as well as bands of pirates. A formidable clan of wererats occupies one of the largest islands in the region. The wererats are not native and migrated over from shipping expeditions that followed Peace's discovery. They have decimated the local ecosystem. They are a hardy bunch and thrive on Peace's Rock. Different pirate bands, unaffliated or otherwise are usually drifiting in and out of Peace's Islands. If there is anything like an organized local power that distinction goes to Ship Town Ship Town Ship Town is a fringe anarchist community living deep in Peace's Islands, away from the laws and confines of civilization. The town is built from the scavenged hulls of ships, shipwrecks and whatever else the inhabitants can get their hands on. This is a safe haven for all comers, including pirates. There are no formal laws, but for the most part, the inhabitants of Ship Town have agreed upon the cardinal rules of 'Don't Steal, Don't Kill'. There is no formal ruler, but the town loosely follows the guidance of The Mayor Roland, a charismatic halfling swashbuckler. Ship Town was built (and continues to be built) without thought to planning or design. The town grows organically as things become needed or materials become available. The result is a cobbled together, cavernous, and labyrinthine city with several "floors" as the town builds up as well as out. The town sustains itself in such an isolated area because of the resource rich waters as well as booty coming in from wayfaring pirates. As such, an odd economy based on barter and trade thrives. Fish Town Remnants of a great merfolk civilization dot the area's of the coral atolls. Pockets of merfolk communities still exist, but they are reclusive and hostile. These are referred to collectively as Fish Town by the inhabitants of Ship Town, but these groups share more in common with nomadic tribes than an actual city, so far as anyone knows. The Smokestack This is a volcanic rock that is unique amongst the volcanic islands in Peace's Archipelago. For one, it is isolated and in relatively deep waters. It is active, which is not unusual but it's lava is primarily rhyolitic and therefore highly viscous and slow-moving. This viscous nature confines lava flows to bulge out and build upon previous flows over a small area, such that The Smokestack is presently a lonely towering structure that looms out of the ocean. It is furthermore dotted with shifting fumarole vents that spew sulphuric gas. Hence its name, The Smokestack. The waters around The Smokestack are particularly rich with minerals and life. This attracts all manner of predators but the perpetually shifting rock and presence of the fumarole vents keep the local drakes from roosting. On the other hand, merfolk are commonly seen here and are probably established. This has earned The Smokestack, like the coral atolls, the nickname of Fish Town by the denizens of Ship Town. Perhaps they favor the abundant obsidian and other glassy rocks associated with rhyolite. A word of caution. Rhyolitic volcanoes eventually produce catastrophic explosions. The Black Lagoon Although apparently ignored by the merfolk communities, the so-called Black Lagoon serves as a gateway to an underwater cave filled with the riches of the ancient merfolk. Now it is said to be inhabited by a terrible kraken. Kraken aside, arriving at the caves poses a handful of practical challenges. Adventurers are advised to navigate their ship toward the center of the lagoon where a vortex appears to suck the ship down underwater. Adventurers must therefore have their ships cargo stowed and secured and they must devise some method of breathing underwater. Until the vortex subsides and drops them off in a dark cavern. The cavern is said to be the ancient dwelling of the merfolk at the height of their power. It's obviously magical since a structure like this would not exist naturally under the ocean, although much of is now flooded.